Children's home run by Homes 2 Inspire Limited

Inspection report children‟s home: 1258134 1 Registered provider: Homes 2 Inspire Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This children‟s home is privately owned. It is registered to provide care for up to five children or young people who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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good

The children‟s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Date of last inspection: 23 January 2019

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: improved effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children‟s home: 1258134 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

23/01/2019 Interim Improved effectiveness 25/06/2018 Full Good 09/01/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report children‟s home: 1258134 3

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person(s) must take to meet the Care Standards Act 2000, Children‟s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the „Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children‟s home that—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home‟s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home; and

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home.

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Requirement Due date

This includes the need to ensure that matching processes for new admissions are completed robustly and are followed. This is to ensure that the child‟s needs can be met and that the admission does not have a negative effect on the existing group. 31/08/2019

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Requirement Due date

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children‟s home that—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare. 30/11/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: 1258134 4 In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home‟s statement of purpose; and

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child.

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Requirement Due date

This includes the need to ensure that all staff have the appropriate qualification as detailed in Regulation 32.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children‟s safety. The requirements are that full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2.

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Requirement Due date

This is in regard to ensuring that references are obtained prior to a person starting work and that all discussions about employment histories and verification of references are recorded. 31/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which are kept up to date and signed and dated by the author of each entry.

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Recommendations

 As outlined in 10.1, the registered person should plan staffing levels to ensure that they meet the needs of children and can respond flexibly to unexpected events or opportunities. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 54, paragraph 10.15)  The registered person is responsible for ensuring that all staff consistently follow the home‟s policies and procedures for the benefit of children in the home‟s care. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page Inspection report children‟s home: 1258134 5 54, paragraph 10.20) This refers to ensuring that staff follow agreed guidance following a safeguarding incident.  Staff should be familiar with the home‟s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that

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Recommendations

distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 62, paragraph 14.4) This refers to ensuring that terminology used is not institutionalised and is appropriate for a children‟s home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, the home has gone through some unsettled periods. This can be mostly attributed to the behaviour of some young people. However, the home has become more settled over the last couple of months. This is because several young people have left due to staff being unable to manage their behaviours. Four young people have been admitted since April 2019 and all of the current young people are making good progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people are happy, settled and receive good-quality care. They have positive, trusting relationships with staff. One young person said: „Staff are always there for me.‟ The nurturing approach of staff has helped new young people to settle into the home quickly.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

A high number of young people have been admitted to the home, and have left the home, since the last inspection. The admission of some young people has affected the stability of the home. Impact and compatibility assessments have not always been fully completed. The indicators about suitability in pre-admission assessments have not been considered when making decisions about the admission of young people. This is not good practice and has the potential to affect the stability of the existing group of young people.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff continue to work closely with the company‟s education coordinator to ensure that young people get the education and training that they need. All young people are doing well in education, with very good attendance and engagement. They are enjoying their education. This includes young people who, prior to moving into the home, had not been engaging in education for some time. This helps to ensure that young people can reach their full potential. The tenacity of staff has helped to ensure that despite experiencing difficulties in education, a young person has completed their GCSEs and has secured a place at college. Inspection report children‟s home: 1258134 6 Young people feel listened to. This helps them to feel valued and increases their confidence and self-esteem. They are supported to pursue their interests and hobbies. This helps them to develop social skills, to become more independent and to have fun.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Young people feel safe. They said that they can raise any worries with staff and they know that staff will support them. This helps them to feel safe and secure.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Young people‟s risk assessments are detailed and regularly reviewed. Effective risk management enables them to develop and take age-appropriate risks in a nurturing and supportive environment.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Staff struggled to manage some young people‟s behaviours earlier in the year. This led to some young people moving from the home. However, staff have been able to re- establish firm but nurturing boundaries for the current group of young people. Additionally, young people‟s positive relationships with staff have helped them to change some of their risk-taking behaviours. This means that they are safer. Physical intervention is rarely used.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Staff understand their responsibilities in safeguarding young people and refer any safeguarding allegations to the relevant agencies. However, on occasions, staff have not always followed the home‟s recording guidance after an allegation is made. This makes it difficult to accurately assess if procedures are being followed, and whether young people are adequately protected. These shortfalls had not been identified by the management team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The registered manager has been in post since the home was registered in August 2017 and has relevant experience of working in residential settings. He is appropriately qualified.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The registered manager has not always followed safe recruitment practices. A member of staff started working at the home before two satisfactory references were received. Discussions to explore employment histories and verification of references are not always recorded. These shortfalls in practice do not fully protect young people from the risk of harm and do not ensure that staff employed are suitable to work with young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Young people receive good-quality, individualised care from a committed staff team. However, young people‟s care records are not always fully completed or signed and dated. This has the potential to affect the delivery of care and it makes it difficult to ascertain what the young person‟s current plan is. Terminology used by staff is inappropriate and institutionalised in some instances. Inspection report children‟s home: 1258134 7 Leaders and managers use a range of management monitoring systems. However, some of the shortfalls identified during this inspection can be attributed to a lack of management monitoring. The quality of management monitoring has been affected by the amount of time that managers have spent providing direct support in managing young people‟s behaviours, up until recently.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Staff are provided with a range of mandatory training. However, only three staff out of 13 hold the required level 3 qualification in residential care. Seven members of staff are currently undertaking the level 3 qualification. New staff receive three weeks of induction and training, which includes shadowing shifts. They also receive regular supervision.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Staffing levels are in line with the statement of purpose. However, having two staff on shift to work with five young people has the potential to affect the delivery of individualised care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

There is a commitment to partnership working. Feedback from agencies regarding communication with staff is variable. Some social workers have commented that communication from staff is very good, and other social workers have reported delays in information sharing.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the differences made to the lives of children and young people. They watched how professional staff work with children and young people and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care provided. Wherever possible, they talked to children and young people and their families. In addition, the inspectors have tried to understand what the children‟s home knows about how well it is performing, how well it is doing and what difference it is making for the children and young people whom it is trying to help, protect and look after.

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Information about this inspection

Using the „Social care common inspection framework‟, this inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service, how it meets the core functions of the service as set out in legislation, and to consider how well it complies with the Children‟s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the „Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟. Inspection report children‟s home: 1258134 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Homes 2 Inspire Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Shaw Trust House, 19 Elmfield Road, Bromley, Kent BR1 1LT

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Inspector:

Katarina Djordjevic: social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: 1258134 9 achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children‟s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children‟s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector:

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Inspector:

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Inspector:

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